Centre notifies two-phased Census 2027; headcount begins from October 2026
What's the story
The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued the notification for conducting the National Population Census in 2027.
As per the notification, the census will begin in the union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand from midnight on October 1, 2026.
For the rest of the country, the counting will begin at midnight on March 1, 2027.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed preparations for the upcoming census with senior officials in New Delhi.
Twitter Post
The gazette notification
Central Government declares that a census of the population of India shall be taken during the year 2027, gazette notification issued. pic.twitter.com/FUipgkLdYz
— ANI (@ANI) June 16, 2025
Phases
Census to include caste enumeration
The Census will be conducted in two phases.
In the first phase (HLO), data on housing conditions, assets, and amenities of each household will be collected.
The second phase (PE) will gather demographic, socio-economic, cultural, and other details of every individual in each household.
The Census will also include a caste enumeration.
For the Census activities, around 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors will be deployed along with 1.3 lakh Census functionaries.
Deployment
Last Census was conducted in 2011
This will be the 16th Census since its inception and the eighth since India's independence.
The next Census will be conducted digitally through mobile applications with a provision for self-enumeration.
Shah ensured that stringent data security measures would be implemented during the collection, transmission, and storage of data.
This will help ensure the privacy and confidentiality of individuals' information.
The last Census was conducted in 2011, and the population at that time was recorded as 1.21 billion.